It is a crisp, October afternoon in New York City. Among the crowded, bustling, streets, Peter Parker and Ned Leeds are in an intense discussion about Star Wars.
"I was reading an article that physics professor from UC Berkeley figured out by using "heavy ions" this could "form part of the lightsaber!", exclaimed Peter Parker (P), his hands mimicking a lightsaber.1
His friend, Ned Leeds (N), shakes his head in disbelief, "No way dude, really!?"
P nods vigorously, "And the article says, "at high enough energy..." P trailed off, feeling his Spidey sense trigger as they rounded the corner.
N sees P's serious expression and stops beside him. "You sense something dangerous is about to happen" he states. P nods in response. N tries to look ahead, squinting to find any 'shady' characters that could be trigging P's Spidey sense.
"Where?"
P points behind N, as a man with a trench coat and fedora hat approaches. N shudders, feeling a hidden gun being placed on his back.
The trenchcoated men's green eyes glared at P through a red mask that covered the upper half of his face. He orders in a stern Italian accent, "No sudden movements now and your amico won't be harmed." A woman in an identical beige trench coat, minus the fedora hat, emerged from the nearby alleyway.
"Good Antonio, you got the boy and some leverage." an Italian lady (IL) spoke. She gestured for them to follow her into the alleyway. N notices P flinching, and his body tensing up each step they took, indicating that more danger lied ahead.
They arrived at the end of a shaded alleyway. A couple dumpsters lined one side and stairwells leading to the back of run-down apartments, ran the other length of the alleyway. Standing in front of P and N, were three more beige trench coated gang members wearing matching fedora hats ready to meet them. As the IL conversed with her associates in a hush Italian tone, P focused on other details that his heightened senses picked up on. A look at their trench coats, he spotted a simple emblem, indicating this was an undercover gang. It was a dead-end alley with no side alleyways that he and N could escape to. Well, seeing that Peter Parker cannot escape this predicament, I know that my other identity can help us out. N is breathing rapidly and casts P a worried glance. P leans close to N, whispering, "It's going to be okay; I'll get us out of here." N sees in P's brown eyes sincerity and determination. This calms his breathing down and he whispers back to P, "I trust you P that you have this situation under control." P nods back reassuringly.
Taking a deep breath to calm his nerves down, P confronts the IL.
"What do you want from us?" demanded P in a loud tone.
A little shocked of the teen's surprisingly calm voice and courageous demeaner, the Italian lady responds, "Only your cooperation in coming with us."
"If we choose not to go?"
The IL Looks down and fiddles with her gun, her red lips curving into a sneer, "If you refuse to come, your friend over there," gestures to friend with Antonio holding an exposed gun at N, "might have to suffer the consequences of your defiance." She pauses for effect to see how P responds. When P only glared at her she continued, "But since you still have not given me a direct answer...," gives a hand signal to the three other gang members, "...a little bit of force might be an order for your decision to be made faster."
The three gang members pulls out a stun gun, a sleeping dart and a knife. Sinster snickers and bearing teeth can be seen by all three of them.
N whimpers and is visibly shaking now with the gun shifting from his back, to his head. He starts breathing nervously, as he sees his best friend being approach with lethal weapons. P gulps at the odds. His alter ego has faced down such chances before, even a couple supervillains for that matter! He could take down these gang members. Confidence restored, P turns towards IL with the slight smirk on his face.
"Yikes, what happened to negotiating! This turned south fast! I have not even told you my decision yet!"
"You've only got one choice, Peter." IL draws out her gun directed to him. "Come, or your friend's exists will end."
N shares a worried glance with P. P winks back at him in response. N relaxes a bit, knowing his friend has the situation under control.
"I vote with option three."
I am growing quite irritable of this teenager's excuses! In an aspirated voice the IL bluntly states, "There... is... no... option...three."
Within a span of a moments, P lunges forward using both web shooters to shoot the stun gun and dart away from the two trenchcoated gang members nearest to him. The two baffled trenchcoated members looked dumfound at their hands, before P kicked and punched both members to the dumpster, securely webbing them up to it. Meanwhile, the third trenchcoated gang member with a knife, aims if for P's legs. P does a backflip avoiding the knife, as it hits a garbage bag near the dumpster.
"Not cool trench coat man! These legs are kind of important you know." P quips as he lands on his feet, webbing the trenchcoated gang member up.
The IL and Antonio with N could only react with wide eyes and mouths a gaped, lowering their guns simultaneously. This teenager just took down my team members in the span of thirty seconds! Why did this not show up on the file?!"the IL wondered.
Freed from the trenchcoated man's grasp, N runs towards Peter with an arm pumped up high, exclaiming, "Yes, Yes, you did it!". P and N do their special handshake exchange. As the two were about make a run for it, the IL and the trench coat man stood in front of them. Their guns threatening to make their escape out of the alleyway.
"Don't think you can escape that fast little hero and his amico. We are still getting what we want. " insisted the IL.
"Uh...", P hesitant as he tries to think of what else he could do so that he and N can escape. Suddenly, a net arrow seizes Antonio's left hand, capturing the gun. It's momentum caused his body to collide with the wall behind him, simultaneously knocking his breath out of him.
The IL lets out a gibber shish Italian mutter in recognition of the arrow. A kick from the above stair case, knocks the IL gun out of her hands. The IL rolls her eyes in recognition of the arrow and outline of the shadowed figure. She snarls, "You two had to come in and interfere with my plans."
The shadowed figure appeared into the light; none other than Black widow herself. BW responded, "I like to call it 'thwarting'."
Immediately both ladies begin combating, the IL 's trench coat swirling with every move and BW's black attire getting mixed up in the blur. Then Hawkeye jumps from the stairwell above and wrestles to put handcuffs on the enraged Antonio. P and N could run now to freedom, but they just could not leave without seeing how this showdown will end. After a few minutes, the IL sees an opening and sends a right hook, hitting BW squarely in the jaw. This causes BW to retreat back a few steps, placing a hand on her jaw, her face scrunched up in pain. In that brief moment, it gave the IL the chance to make her exit, by tearing down a pile of cardboard boxes as she left, and running past the awestruck teenagers.
As she leaves, she shouts, "My plans shall prevail, and that boy will be mine!" H tries to shoot a tracer arrow before IL left, leaving Antonio handcuffed on one of the stair cases. Meanwhile, Antonio sees that H and BW are slightly distracted by his leader's escape. He draws at a key that he knew opened these hand cuffs from S.H.E.I.L.D. He then makes his escape, sprinting up the stairwell and breaking into one of the apartments. P did hear Antonio's steps and the crack of a window, but he could not risk exposing his alter ego, thus allowed him to escape. At the same time, the IL rounds the corner, and the small tracer arrow completing missing its target. H tries to catch-up to the IL, but only sees regular New York citizens passing by. He throws his gloves hands up in exasperation, "I can't believe I missed!" and returns back to the alley.
BW holds her jaw in pain, muttering, "I can't believe she got away."
"Well at least we caught the majority of these gang members and saved Peter plus his friend from potential death." says H as he returns his arrow to his pack.
Some squeals are heard, and the two S.H.E.I.L.D agents turn their heads to see the source. It was the two teenagers they just finished saving from the trenchcoated gang.
N approaches H and BW with exuberant, wide eyes. "Hawkeye and Black Widow! The Avengers! Oh, the Avengers just saved us!" N gushes and shakes P's shoulder, "Can you believe this dude!? I wished I had the chance to video tape this!"
Shaking out of his shock stupor, P responds to the two S.H.E.I.L.D agents, "Thank-you for saving our lives! Could we get a photo of you two?" P takes his phone out of his jacket pocket as he asks this.
H agreed first, followed by a relucted BW. A group selfie was taken on BW's good side and to N's satisfaction.
"Before you two leave there is a question we would like to ask." H started. BW pointed towards the webbed up weapons and the unconscious trench-coated gang members sticking to the side of the dumpster.
BW questions, "Was Spider-Man here earlier?"
Ned and Peter shuffle nervously, both darting their gazes at BW. She gave them both a pointed look, crossing her arms. Nervously, P swallows heard and answers, "Ah yah he was..."P jabs his friend to help him out. N finishes, "...but had to leave urgently for another emergency. " They both look at BW and H with plastered grins.
Both agents knew the teenagers were lying, but shrugged it off as being too shocked from the events that had unfolded. H spoke up, pointing his two gloved fingers at them, "Will be keeping an eye out for the two of you just in case this sort of thing happens again. Does that sound okay?"
N and P answered in unison, "Sure!"
N and P wave goodbye as BW and H call S.H.E.I.L.D to take care of the rest.
As the two walked down the street, N reflects, "This has been a wild afternoon; it was not fun being held hostage but on the plus side, I got to see three heroes today and get their picture!"
"Haha, glad to have such a trustworthy friend, who kept such a brave spirit through all of this." They fist bump. "Now let's go get something to eat!"
*Pictures are from Pinterest. Will write a source page once story is complete! ;-)